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On Improving Authorship Attribution of Source Code

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Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime (ICDF2C 2012)

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Abstract

Authorship attribution of source code is the task of deciding who wrote a program, given its source code. Applications include software forensics, plagiarism detection, and determining software ownership. A number of methods for the authorship attribution of source code have been proposed. This paper presents an overview and critique of the state of the art in the field. An independent comparative study is presented using an unprecedented experimental design and data set, as well as proposals for improvements and future work.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science & Information Systems, Bradley University, Peoria, IL, USA

    Matthew F. Tennyson

Authors
  1. Matthew F. Tennyson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, Purdue University, 47906, Lafayette, IN, USA

    Marcus Rogers

  2. The University of Alabama, 35487, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    Kathryn C. Seigfried-Spellar

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© 2013 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Tennyson, M.F. (2013). On Improving Authorship Attribution of Source Code. In: Rogers, M., Seigfried-Spellar, K.C. (eds) Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime. ICDF2C 2012. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 114. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39891-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39891-9_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39890-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39891-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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